Nurburgring day 1...

Hey guys and girls, just a really quick update, good start so far, started this morning and lead pretty much the whole session, we only used 1 set of tyres for the whole hour session as we wanted to fix the bike rather than fire new tyres at it, we dropped to 5th by the end of the session when everybody else used their second set but it was all good.

Provisional qualifying we went one step better, i was actually pretty disappointed as Carols and i had been P1 and P2 all session but right at the end with new tyres i never improved my lap time and a few did so i ended up provisional front row in P4, if i get a chance i'll update you guys again tomorrow, take it easy, Shakey#67

Not the most impressive pic i know but it's the only one i have right now!!!

Holidays are over!!!

Well people, this is it, the summer break is now officially over, i'm sat here in the motorhome typing this on Thursday morning here at the Nurburgring, shortly i'm off over to see the guys in the garage to get the low down on what's been going on during the summer break and i might see if i can get taken around the famous circuit in one of the fast taxis, they have things like M5's that you can get driven around in so that should be amusing!!!, i can't wait to get back out on the bike tomorrow, last year i really liked the layout and flow of the track but the races weren't two of my best but hopefully this year we can rectify that a little!!

It's been a real good break and i've really enjoyed the time out and actually getting to spend a few weeks at home without having to jump on a plane or drive up to the UK, it's made a pleasant change i tell you!!! I managed to get a fair bit of cycling in over the break, had the in laws down, had mum down for a little while oh and pick up some kind of stomach infection that wrote me off for about 8 days which wasn't at all good but i think we're out the other side of that now, sat right now watching Reg making a dick of himself trying to learn some new motocross game i brought for the PS3 which is quite amusing!!

Right for now i'm gonna crack on for a bit, i'l update you guys again real soon ok, i know this update's been a while coming but don't worry, i'm on it!!! Talk to you soon, Shakey#67

Silverstone...

I have to admit things had been pretty manic on the run up to Silverstone, we had to come to the UK a few days before the event as there’s a number of important things that we needed to try to make some headway with so we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rushing around boxing a load of stuff off.

Thursday morning however it was off to work we go, the weekend started with an interview at Whittlebury Hall just near Silverstone with fastbikes magazine, it seemed kind of weird in a way doing an interview for them, back in the day when Colin owned it and I was wheeling across the South of France an interview with them would’ve been the last thing I’d imagine doing, ironically the journo Simon Roots last interviewed me at the end of 2003 but for Superbike magazine, he explained the differences from a journalist point of view of the whole road testing thing and by all accounts it’s not the fun it used to be, in fact, far from it!!!!

After an hour or so of reminiscing the past we talked a bit about the present and possibly the future however I’ve no idea yet what the future holds so that part of the interview past fairly quick, a fairly rapid close to the interview and we were rushing off to the circuit for the press conference.

After all that kind of stuff was done I got on my scooter to get out and investigate the new layout, to be honest I was really pleasantly surprised with what I saw, on the tv the track looked really really fast which is potentially a big problem for us and whilst it wasn’t exactly slow it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.

Free practice was always going to be about getting the gearing sorted out, fundamentally chassis wise we knew we’d be there or thereabouts as the bike always works to a degree it’s just a case of refining the chassis for each circuit, we tried a few different options gearing wise and never quite hit the nail on the head but that was only to be expected at a brand new track where lap times were tumbling by the session, by the end of the session we finished 5^th or 6^thwhich was a decent enough start, we knew we had plenty more to come it’s just that at that point nobody realized just how much more we’d need!!!

1^st qualifying also passed without any dramas, we found just over a second but managed to slip back to 13^th which I was pretty pissed about, once again though we had more to come for the following day and just being in the top 20 ensured a place in Superpole so it was all good.

Saturday’s morning qualifying was in pretty crap conditions, it had rained over night and there were a few damp patches and spots of rain about, I ended the session 5^th I think after leading nearly the whole session and I’d got to within a 10^th of a second of my lap time of the previous afternoon in good conditions so I knew we’d made some good progress.

Free practice in the afternoon passed again without drama and another chunk off my lap time, so it was onwards and upwards now to see if my prediction regarding whether or not I’d sussed Superpole was true or not…..

I managed to put in a good enough lap initially on a new pair of race tyres for P5 which took me through to Superpole 2 which pleased me.

In Superpole 2 I threw down a lap on my 1^st qualifier which initially put me P4 so I was well chuffed but I knew I’d need to use my second tyre as only 8 could go through, then, the revelation of all revelations happened, I knocked another .3 of a second off my best all alone on a qualifying tyre, as I crossed the line I saw myself P4 again, the chequered flag was out and I was so chuffed you wouldn’t believe, finally my shot at a front row and bang on time for my home race, I rode that in lap with the biggest grin on my face however my face changed when I was entering the pits and the grandstand position board showed me P9, I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!!!!

Morning warm up went pretty good, we tried another setting change that worked really well and had the bike the most balanced it had been all weekend, that session came and went and it wasn’t too long at all after that my pre race nerves set in, my poor stomach was doing back flips, I did an interview on the grid for some radio station and the guys question was something like “so Shakey, home race, how are you feeling, what are your thoughts right now?” my reply was “to be honest with you, my only thought right this second is whether I sat on the toilet for long enough earlier, judging by the way my stomach feels right now I’m guessing not!!!” the guy didn’t look particularly impressed with my answer!!!!!

Anyway, enough of that, I got a pretty good start as the lights went out, they held us on the line for a long time but as I said my start was good and my run down to turn 1 was good, I got a pretty good run through turn 1 but got a little bit humped in the first few turns, my first lap through the stadium section was all it took to tell me it was pretty much all over before it’d even started, coming on the start finish the bike was sideways, something I’d not had a problem with all weekend, the rear tyre wasn’t working at all and I just kept losing valuable tenths at every corner exit, there was a point where I thought that’s enough, I’m pulling in but lets face it it’s not like I’ve got a million points behind me this year so I stuck at it to finish 9^th.

I got another good start in race two, in fact probably better than race 1, I settled in around 7^thbut this time despite not changing a thing other than the rear tyre.

I had a pretty good run to be fair and felt really comfortable in the group battling for 4^th place, it was absolutely imperative that I made a perfect exit onto the straight whilst in the group as it enabled me to get towed maybe a quarter of a lap down the straight which kept me in contention. With two laps to go I put a pass on Biaggi and was preying to keep my 6^th position, I thought come on, smooth, fast, no mistakes, it’s just two laps you can do it, I still believe I could however Max passed me down the back straight so f***in fast that I thought oh ok, maybe you can’t then!!! The long and the short of it was I rode the last lap trying as hard as I could to be on the back of the group, riding wide sweeping lines to take advantage of any mistakes but all of a sudden Sylvain came up the inside of me into the right before the hairpin, I immediately swept out wide to try to out drive him between the hairpin and the following left onto the last straight and so so nearly got him back but didn’t quite pull it off which meant I had to roll the throttle losing me any chance of attacking him so it was P8 for me then.

Obviously I’m pretty gutted with the weekend and the results, I’m real pleased for Cal Crutchlow, he rode mega and he’s a good kid but it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago that I was beating the likes of him, Leon, Leon etc week in week out so for them guys to be on the podium whilst I had to settle for 8^th and 9^th is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but I guess it is what it is, we’ll keep on pushing as hard as we possibly can and see where it takes us.

Massive thanks this weekend to the British crowd, you guys all made me feel real special, it was mega to be appreciated that way and the words of encouragement made me feel mega and really cheered me up, big thanks also to my mechanics for all their hard work, they got my bike better and better as the weekend went on so good job guys!!! Take it easy everyone and I’ll update you again soon. Shakey #67

Full gas!!!!!

Brno...

Feels kind of weird sitting here typing this sentence because I’m just about to say that I’m relatively happy with my weekend despite the fact I finished 12^th and 9^th or whatever it was!!! I guess though all things considered whilst I had every intention to give it a go on Friday morning I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to ride, in fact if the truth be known if you had of asked me maybe Tuesday or Wednesday before the event I was pretty doubtful to be honest…

Prior to Brno we’d spent a few days over in the UK getting a few bits and pieces sorted out which for a change went fairly smoothly, generally we get like 5 minutes there and have 5 months worth of stuff to sort out so we never get everything done, this time though things were a bit less rushed which was nice!!!

Despite the fact it had been pretty warm whilst we were in the UK getting off the plane in Brno initially surprised me as it was only pleasantly warm at that point, it was soon to change to roasting however but it was lovely for 5 minutes!!!

Reggie had driven the motorhome up from the Ducati factory for me, this was his first race weekend this year so it was good to have him around again, plenty of people in the paddock had been asking where he was and my reply was always, “he’s gone A.W.O.L!!” anyone who knows him would understand my answer!!!!

I went to the medical centre as soon as we got to the circuit Wednesday evening but that was shut so I had to get up first thing Thursday morning to see the doctors in the clinica to see what we could do treatment wise to sort my hand out, fortunately Alpinestars brought along some larger left hand gloves for me which were stretched and adjusted to fit my still pretty swollen hand in, to be honest after my initial treatments things were feeling pretty awkward, the stitching on the top of the glove was pulling right across the top of the cut and every time I clinched my hand as if to hold onto the bars I felt inside the glove like my stitches were trying to pull themselves open, I thought there and then, hmm, this is gonna be a tough weekend!!!!

Unbelievably the first session went incredibly well, I felt really awkward and one step behind the bike but I still finished the first session in 6^th I think after running as high as 4^th at one point, the only problem was I could only really do 4 or 5 lap stints at that point as the swelling was making life a little bit tricky..

For the 1^st qualifying session I dropped a few places but to be honest I wasn’t bothered as running in the top 10 was more than good enough, my biggest problem was feeling still 1 step behind the bike, it was like the bike was riding me round the track rather than me riding it, we made a few adjustments to beat the feeling but to be honest nothing seemed to make any difference, in the end despite spending all the way from that session to race one changing bits and pieces I resigned myself to the fact that it was just me so I got on with it as best I could.

Saturday brought even hotter weather and with it even more problems feeling wise, I dropped further down the order and was seriously wondering whether or not I was doing the right thing riding like this in these positions, I wasn’t happy but then I guess racers never are but we cracked on anyway positively hoping that the next session would be the turnaround!!

Sessions seemed to be coming and going far faster than I could cope with and I really wasn’t making much progress so as you can probably imagine I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Superpole but ironically things initially turned themselves around a bit…

In Superpole 1 I got out behind Haga and despite the fact he crashed in front of me I managed my best race tyre time of the weekend around half a second or so quicker than my previous best of the weekend, it was good enough to get me through but we didn’t know it at the time so I used one of my qualifiers although I never got to follow anyone on that lap and only matched my time on the race tyre.

For Superpole 2 we fitted an new front and rear tyre and I went out to put 1 fast lap in before using my second qualifier to try to get through to Superpole 3, unfortunately though about 5 corners in it was obvious there was something not right front tyre wise, I lost the front into the 1^st of the double rights then again a few turns later, I rushed back to the pits to change tyres for my qualifier and a new front but there simply wasn’t time to change the front and with the qualifier rear in the bike just pushed the front even more. On a positive note though I think I finally sussed this whole qualifying thing, obviously I’m going to reserve judgement until Silverstone but I’m fairly confident I’ve found something.

Sunday morning’s warm up went very well indeed which helped me a bit, on used tyres from the day before I set my fastest lap of the weekend and felt pretty comfortable doing it, I actually managed about 6 or 7 laps on the bounce in that session which was about the most I’d done all weekend, the two 20 odd lap races were gonna be tough but the most important thing was not to rest and think we’d cracked it now as by the time the races came around the ambient and the track temperature would be way up, something that had caught me out in the past.

As we lined up on the grid for the start of race 1 I just felt the urge to get right amongst it, I was ready, or as ready as I could be anyway, I got a good or should I say a sensible start but I’m not joking when I tell you the exit of turn 1 pretty much told me all I needed to know about this race, it was going to be a bloody nightmare, I had no grip whatsoever and every time I exited a turn I’d lose a few bike lengths, I honestly considered pulling in to save my hand for race two but to cut a long story short I persevered and ended up 12^th, after the race the team could see my frustration and as soon as they downloaded the data from the bike they could see the problem, we just had to cross our fingers for race 2 and hope the problem would be gone.

I got a fairly sensible start again in race 2 and got much more amongst it, I nearly took myself out however trying to pass Guintoli and that cost me a bit of time and a couple of places but I chipped away and chipped away to finally come home 9^th, the top 20 position I’d dreamed of at the start of the week leading up to the race.

It’s important to remain positive right now and also to thank a few people for their hard work all weekend, all of the guys in the Clinica have been mega as always so big thanks for all your help and also to my side of the Althea Ducati garage, they never give up on me and despite the fact it was a difficult weekend they were behind me all the way so thanks you guys, Jarno form Alpinestars for sorting my gloves, Petra for all her hard work and Reg for taking care of everything else, you’ve all been mega, thanks to you all. Roll on Silverstone!!!!!!

Getting all tucked in!!!!!

Misano...

What's that saying, wrong place at the wrong time......Kinda sums up my qualifying performances doesn't it really!!!!!

With Misano being the venue for my only podium last season i was obviously looking forward to getting back there racing, that and the fact that we'd tested there literally the week before so we were up to speed had me well excited!!!

The weekend really got going well, we were constantly up and around the top 5 positions and feeling pretty comfortable with it, the test the week before had really helped, in fact it didn't take too long at all to get going every bit as fast as we'd been the week previous.

Obviously writing this like two weeks after the event some of the details are a little bit sketchy but in provisional qualifying friday afternoon i think i ended up 4th or 5th which was more than ok for now.

The following morning however in 2nd qualifying we got going even better and comfortably with a pretty shabby lap jumped up to P2, however in hindsight this was maybe a little bit of my undoing as with the session being in the morning i.e far far cooler track temperature wise the bike was feeling really good but that afternoon when i got out on track ready for Superpole the bike never felt much different, it seemed to be working the same and i felt fast and confident but the lap times just weren't coming, we were quite a way off, we fired in a new set of tyres just before the end of the final practice and i think i got to within half a second i so of my morning time with a chew the screen kinda lap, oh shit, this is gonna be tricky.......indeed it was.

We scraped through the 1st session using only race tyres which is always good but it was the second session that went horribly wrong for a change, i'm not even gonna bore you with details, the long and the short of it was i couldn't go as fast even with a qualifier as i'd been in the morning on a race tyre so i missed the cut to go through and ended up a totally disgruntled 15th.

Morning warm up the following day brought a turn around in fortune again, the cooler temperature saw me go P1 just a tenth off my fastest time of the weekend with no problem whatsoever, blimey, all i needed was a good start and first couple of laps, how many times have you heard that from me!!!!!

For once this year i did get a sensible start and i got stuck right in through the first chicane making up about 8 places, yeeessssss i thought we're on t, on the run down to the real tight rights i had a look at sneaking another place or two and nearly went in too hot but then Camier came up my inside even hotter sitting me up and for the next few turns i got a bit humped and lost about 4 or 5 places due to being a bit off line, i got myself together and started going forward again but then i made a mistake and run straight on a bit into Quercia losing a couple of spots, i got them pretty much straight back which was handy then set after the group in front i caught and passed James Toseland and Johnny Rea and finally ended up 9th, not great.

For race two i knew i needed to get involved early on and not lose any time, my start wasn't too bad and i ran in the top ten before finishing up a slightly better 7th however this time i was much much closer to the front, sure Max had gone but the group for 2nd were about 3 or 4 seconds up the track which starting for 15th i wasn't too unhappy about.

So to sum up the weekend i guess all i can say is i've got to get it together in qualifying, once again i showed albeit at the wrong times that i've got the pace over a single lap and i have real good race pace over race duration i just need to start from the front to run at the front, hopefully we're getting there, big thanks to the boys for all their hard work, on wards and upwards or downwards as the case ended up to Imola for the official Pirelli test......

Hi mum!!!!!

Salt Lake smiles...

Following my last blog yesterday you’ll know already that I’m in a happy mood and I’m smiling again, well I can tell you right this second I’ve got an even bigger smile on my face because not only did we get a free club class upgrade on the way to Orlando last week but we’ve been upgraded again free from New York to Heathrow so I’m sat here typing this in my club class bed, what a result!!!!!

I know yesterdays blog touched a tiny bit on how the races actually went in Salt Lake but I’m gonna take you through the weekend in detail anyway. As you may of read recently after the disaster that was Kyalami me and my team sat down to formulate a plan of attack, the funniest or coolest thing about the plan was that we were all on exactly the same page, I went away thinking do you know what, I’m not sure this ride by wire thing is working so good, I wish they’d just put me a proper analogue cable on so that I can get some feeling from this bike, when I sat down with them the first thing they said was, right we’ve been thinking and we think you should try the old system i.e. throttle cables in America and test this system back to back with ride by wire so that we can increase your feeling again with the bike. Talk about perfect, I couldn’t wait to get to America after Kyalami!!!!

We started out in the first session by doing an out in lap with the new throttle cable set up just so that the guys could download the data to get everything calibrated correctly, the only thing that wasn’t quite right was that there was no free play whatsoever in the cables so it was a bit sharp pulling away out of the pit lane, the immediate and I mean immediate sensation was like, ahhhhh, that’s better, mind you that said actually twisting the throttle felt unbelievably heavy compared to the super light ride by wire set up, I remember semi joking to myself about getting arm pump if I had to do more than about 5 laps but in terms of feeling like I said, ahhhh that’s better.

Straight after the out in I went out on my normal ride by wire bike and immediately over some of the bumps through turn 3 I thought bloody hell, this things a bit sharp, too sharp in fact, I did about 8 laps initially to get up to speed and the bike was working pretty good, I was enjoying riding and liking the track, after those laps it was time to head out on the cable bike for my first real go at it. For some reason the cable bike felt much faster than my ride by wire one, this was only an engine km thing but nonetheless the cable bike felt strong, the heavy sensation I mentioned of the analogue throttle wasn’t going away but at the same time it made the bike so much more manageable at the apex and allowed me to be smoother winding the gas on, fundamentally the bikes were set a bit different chassis wise, one was set pretty much how I had my bike there last year and the other still the same as our setting from Kyalami, it wasn’t until I got one more shot on the ride by wire bike i.e. the last years setting bike that I realised chassis wise it was a good step forward despite the cable one feeling better in terms of being able to feel more of what was going on. We ended the session with the 3^rd fastest time and went P1 for a little while, the first time I’d seen that in ages, I was really enjoying riding and everything was going to plan.

We made the decision immediately after the first session to set both bikes to the kyalami setting so that we had equal chassis’s to further back to back test the ride by wire/cable scenario and made short work of not only deciding which way to go throttle wise but also how to improve the bike further chassis wise, I made the decision to go analogue for the weekend so that all we had to do now was concentrate on finding a good race set up, we could see from the data the problem I’d been having all year on the ride by wire bike, the rear suspension gets too upset too early in the turn which loses speed and doesn’t do the tyre longevity any favours whatsoever, it was almost like the decision was there right in front of us in black and white THIS RIDE BY WIRE’S DOING THIS BUT THAT CABLE DOES THIS MUCH BETTER. Although we slipped from 3^rd to 6^th I was still very happy and certain we’d made the right choice.

Saturday mornings qualifying session went real well, I lead the session for a while and we concentrated on being consistent over a race duration, I dropped to 5^th by the end of the session but only because we didn’t fire in more tyres and concentrated as I said on durability, some more chassis changes were helping me out more and more and I was feeling good and confident that it’d be quite easy to make a big step lap times wise with fresh tyres so everything was still going exactly to plan.

We started the free practice session in the afternoon with the same tyres we’d been using in the morning as it was real important to go over race distance so we knew where we’d be at by the end of the races and the result was mega, my 24^th lap on the same pair of tyres was a 1.49.1 so we were right on the money to say the least, with a fresh pair of tyres in I lead the session for about 15 or 20 minutes and was happy to plug on with another load of laps rather than chasing a fast time at the end, I felt really relaxed and was enjoying riding now even more than at the beginning of the weekend!!!

For the first time in ages we got through the first Superpole using only a race tyre which was perfect, just what we needed, once again I was relaxed and feeling really confident.

The cock up came in Superpole 2, my initial 2 laps netted me P4 on my first qualifier, enough we thought to be safe to go through to the final session with another qualifying tyre left, perfect…….. As it turned out I got dropped to 5^th so the guys said right go out on your second qualifier, do an out lap exit the last turn only real hard and if you’re in the clear we’ll put BOX on your pitboard so abort the lap, right, ok, out lap, build up a little towards the end, nail the last turn hard, BOX P5, f***in excellent, now I’ve really really got a good shot at the front row, I completed the lap real slow so that I could save the tyre for the final exit, I had a real big smile on my face right up until the point when I pulled into Pit lane, the marshal guy waved me into the collecting area and I thought no mate, not me I’m through but then I saw one of my guys who looked like he was suicidal pointing to the collecting area so I got a bit confused, it turned out I was through right up to the point that the chequered flag came out so the guys gave me P5 BOX thinking I was through, I aborted my lap and course 3 or 4 of the guys pipped me by less than a 10^th of a second, I wasn’t happy to say the least but we were on it regardless even if it was going to be much much harder work from the 3^rd row….

Morning warm up passed without any dramas at all, we had to use some used tyres from the day before just to triple check on their performance and with morning warm up being a fair bit cooler track temperature wise the rear tyre didn’t work too well at all, we ended the session 3^rd or 4^th I think so if the temperature came up for the races we’d be in good shape. I did a practice start at the end of the session and it was my fastest ever start on a Ducati so if I could pull another one of them out of the bag, well…

My race one start was far from dreadful but it wasn’t perfect either and the long run down to turn 1 wasn’t helped when JT cut across the front of me so close that I had to roll the throttle to avoid a collision, I was there or thereabouts but Smrz’s bike blew unbeknown to him and he continued on all the way round the lap to the attitude turns, something that not even a minute or so later would cost me dearly, on lap 2 I entered the fast turn 3 left hander, threw the bike on it’s side and the rear snapped round so fast that I honestly thought I was going to have to hit the ejector button, fortunately or not depending how you look at it the bike snapped back in line sending me off track at high speed, I remember looking up and seeing the tyre wall heading in my direction at a pretty rapid rate of knots, I managed to slow just enough to make a turn but had to rejoin dead last, all I could do was get my head down and push as hard as possible to try to catch up so that’s exactly what I did and lap after lap I got further and further up the order, right at the end of the race I was on the back wheel of Troy Corser in 5^th and I looked at pulling the same pass on him as I had on a lot of the others, I think it was a bit too touch and go if I’d pull it off and after spending 20 laps busting my balls I’d feel pretty daft crashing on the penultimate lap or so I thought, I was so engrossed in catching troy that I misjudged the laps left and as we exited the final turn I saw the chequered flag and initially my heart sank, as I said I felt touch and go I could’ve made the pass but I was convinced there was 1 more lap which should of seen me be able to get pass to take my first top 5 of the year but it wasn’t to be.

The team were absolutely peaking when I returned to park ferme which was good to see, we’ve not had a lot to cheer about of late but it was nice to se them smiling and happy and long may it continue!!!

After the pace we had in race 1 I was really hopeful of a far better result in the 2^nd race, I knew if everything went to plan there could well be a podium up for grabs, my bike was fantastic in the first race and I actually had race winning pace, I lost 13 seconds on that second lap and finished 11 seconds behind the leader, you do the maths, I was feeling good!!!

I got another so so start and tried to settle in immediately, straight away though there was a bit of a problem, I had a bit of chatter from the rear tyre straight away and about 50% less grip on the corner exits, it really was a case of oh no, this is going to be a long old race, I battled the best I could but could only manage a 7^th after some difficult battles with some of the guys, that was far from the result I was hoping for but nonetheless it equalled my best weekend so far in Portimao, I’m really hopeful now that dropping the ride by wire is the way forward, I’m chomping at the bit to get out in Misano and keep the ball rolling, I really enjoyed that track last year and hope to emulate my results from ’09!!!

I’d like to say a big thank you to my team owner Genesio and to Ducati for arranging the cable throttle for me to test and to all my guys in my side of the box who worked so well this weekend, hopefully we’ve now turned a corner and can look forward to a far better second half of the season!!!!!

To do the most possible I arrived back at mums around lunch time this afternoon, got changed into my cycling gear and busted out 50 miles with one of my pals, jet lag and all, it wasn’t easy as I felt half asleep but it keeps the momentum going, bring on Misano!!!!!

Happy times...

Fun, that's the way i perceive life should be, Petra and i took a few days out before Miller and as you may well of seen from some of the pics i've posted we went to Orlando, it was only 4 days out but boy did it do me the world of good, you see the reason i write all this is because my job, i.e racing a motorbike is to me the coolest job in the world bar none, sure it could pay probably 50 times better then we might earn something like footballers but you see the thing is that's not what it's all about to me and it took those 4 days out to realise, the problem has been that things racing wise haven't been going at all well, let's be honest now, we flew in all the preseason tests, last year i grant you we were fast in Portimao but this year, Portimao, Valencia and Phillip Island, we were on it, to the point where i didn't even care if someone went a quarter of a second quicker in any given session as i knew within that we could do it, i quite honestly felt on it, this is to be my year... two massive high sides later and a string of what are to me dissapointing results had gotten me all confused though, you see the problem here is that racing is such a massive part of my life and every time things don't go my way in a session, a race, a practice whatever i become frustrated and just try harder and harder and harder but actually that just doesn't work with a Ducati, the harder you try the slower you go. Now, back to Orlando, 4 days out, time to relax and reflect, Petra and i talked for ages and i realised the problem this year is that i'm just not relaxing and enjoying the only job i've ever dreamed of having all my life nowhere near enough, this is supposed to be fun, it's all i've ever wanted and i don't want to look back one day and think cor, i travelled the world, got paid to race bikes, the only job i ever wanted since i was a kid and i wasted it by not actually enjoying myself, In Salt Lake this weekend i had a lot of fun, i really enjoyed my bike again, she's my baby again, we've changed back to an analogue throttle and i've got my feeling back, i've read some pretty negative stuff that sometimes makes me want to front out the people and say "do you know what, you're nothing but an armchair world champion, what the f**k do you know about how hard we have to try to get anywhere at world level???" people talk about motivation, high pay cheques for nothing, parenthood etc and it just makes me laugh because do you know what, the only thing i've been guilty of so far this year is trying too hard, not having fun and being too serious, this weekends been mega, i've loved it, enjoyed myself on track, been far more relaxed off track and i absolutely can't wait until Misano, hopefully we can qualify better and be up the front, Shakey's smiling again!!! take it easy and keep the faith, Shakey #67